Texas Tech wasn’t the only program to hire an acclaimed passing-game coach during the offseason. When Kliff Kingsbury makes his head-coaching debut Friday night in Dallas, his staff will be matching wits with SMU’s June Jones and Hal Mumme, masters of the run-and-shoot and Air Raid schemes that have proliferated in college football for a quarter century.

“Offensively, it’s going to be interesting to see how coach Mumme plugs into it,” Kingsbury said Monday. “Obviously, it’s two great offensive minds coming together. So we’ll have to see if it’s a blend of both or more his or more coach Jones’ (offense).”

It’s not as if SMU was struggling. Since reversing the course of a long-dormant program, Jones in the last four years has led the Mustangs to two eight-win seasons, two seven-win seasons and three victories in four bowl appearances.

Mumme was holed up in Abilene the last four years working on his own turnaround job. He took over a McMurry team on a 13-game losing streak and went 4-6 the first year, then 6-4, 9-3 and 8-3. From 1989 to 2000, Mumme and Mike Leach cooked up their cutting-edge passing attack at Iowa Wesleyan, Valdosta State and Kentucky.

Now Kingsbury and new defensive coordinator Matt Wallerstedt have to guess to what extent Mumme’s arrival will alter Jones’ offense.

“I would assume the communication would be different,” Kingsbury said. “In the past, I know he (Jones) has had to bring his quarterback over to him. I figure they’ll be signaling in to try and push the pace a little bit more. But other than that, I really don’t know what they’re going to do.”

Jones and Mumme have one thing going for them, besides a team that posted a 43-10 rout of Fresno State in the Hawaii Bowl last year. They’re working with Garrett Gilbert, a fifth-year senior, as their starting quarterback.

Although teams coached by Jones and Mumme often are among the national passing leaders, their offenses aren’t identical. In the run-and-shoot — Jones’ baby — receivers can freelance routes based on how they read coverages. They might choose on the fly from two or three options, depending what they see in the defense.

The Air Raid relies more on the quarterback evaluating the defense pre-snap and conveying an appropriate call to his receivers. Mumme and Leach were architects of that system, the one in which Kingsbury passed for 12,000 yards and 95 touchdowns during his Tech career.

“I would say from what I know about the run and shoot, the quarterbacks and receivers are more on the same page at the same time,” Kingsbury said, “where in our system, at least how we do it, we put more on the quarterback than we do on the receivers.”

Kingsbury already has some skins on the wall as an assistant, having worked with record-setting quarterback Case Keenum at the University of Houston and Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel at Texas A&M. On the opposite side, Jones and Mumme rarely take a back seat to anyone when it comes to quarterback achievement.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for them, not only as coaches but the type of people they are,” Kingsbury said. “You hear anybody speak about them, they speak in high terms as far as what they’ve done on the field, but also how they treat their coaches and how they treat their players. It’s a huge honor to be playing against them, and it should be a great game.”